China Now Number One Market in Sales of Misfit Shine

Misfit, a US-based wearable maker, launched activity tracker Shine in November 2012. More than one year later it finds China its number one market in sales. That must be thanks to the fact that the gadget has gotten on a couple of big Chinese online retailers, JD.com and Yixun (recently became a JD company), and an offline electronics retailer Funtalk.

Misfit Shine on JD.com

While China still sees smart gadget makers around the world coming in to look for manufacturers, many who have started shipping their gadgets now are searching for retailers or other local partners. Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com launched a sub-site for smart hardware much earlier than Amazon did. Almost all smart gadgets, no matter the Chinese or those from overseas, find it’s a powerful platform to boost initial sales.

JD even rolled out an incubation program offering smart gadget makers funding, marketing support and other services hoping to benefit from those who’d stand out from its platform.

But unlike most of the smart hardware products that are made in China, the Shines are made in South Korea. According to Sonny Wu, CEO of Misfit, the company happened to find an Korean manufacturer who produces quality items although the costs are unavoidably higher.

Chinese women love gadgets like Shine.

Also Misfit finds there are more female users as a percentage in China while a tech product like Shine generally has a much higher percentage of male users who are considered more tech-savvy in many other markets. Sonny Vu thinks it’s because Shine is well designed and all metal that are appealing to women.